Two weeks after banning President Donald Trump on its platform for “hateful conduct”, Twitch has lifted the ban. The ban resulted from remarks regarding broadcasts from his rallies.
It has to do with specific racist comments made on two occasions. One was Donald Trump’s remarks at a recent rally in Tulsa, where he referred to criminals as “hombre[s]” which is a Spanish reference to Hispanic men.
The second was a remark from a rebroadcast of the 2015 event announcing his candidacy. At that event, Trump referred to Mexican immigrants as criminals and “rapists.”
The ban came as Twitch pledged to crack down on harassment as a result of streamers starting to share stories of harassment and assault within the industry. The streaming site seems to indicate that its rules regarding the issue apply to everyone by banning Trump.
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“Like anyone else, politicians on Twitch must adhere to our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. We do not make exceptions for political or newsworthy content, and will take action on content reported to us that violates our rules,” Twitch said at the time.
Given the current socio-political discourse, social media sites have been fingered for not playing their part in regulating hateful and racist behaviour on their platforms. Twitch is doing its best to be better than other social media sites at regulating its content.
Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are facing heavy criticism for their perceived inaction. A campaign asking advertisers to boycott Facebook throughout July 2020 received support from more than 400 brands.
Facebook has also seen its employees criticise the company over the same issue. Unlike Twitch, Twitter has not banned Trump, but has labeled some of his posts as ‘false’ or ‘encouraging violence’.
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